Library

DISPLAYING POSTS FILED UNDER: Library (11)

Information on Trilobites? Blandowski? Coles Book Arcade? The MV Library helps the Museum's curators and researchers find information, and welcomes other scholars by appointment to use its large book and journals collection.

Each year, the MV library develops a particular area of the book collection. This year it's the Indigenous section receiving attention, which will assist the team working on the redevelopment of Bunjilaka and the researchers of the Indigenous Cultures Department. Over 50 books, many of them out-of-print and very rare, were purchased from Grants Bookshop for an average price of less than a modern day paperback. With increasing costs for interlibrary loans, purchasing our own copies for MV makes sound financial sense, too.

Display in the MV Library of the newly-aquired books about Indigenous culture and history. Source: Museum Victoria

Research associate Jason Gibson talked about the nature of these books, some of which date back to the 1940s. "They often take a classical anthropological perspective, that you don't see much of any more. There were problems with this approach but in terms of the detail captured, it's fantastic." He explained that these books were largely written by non-Indigenous anthropologists attempting an objective, scientific analysis of Indigenous people. "It was often the first time Indigenous languages, traditions and cultural practices had been documented in written form and therefore these texts have become very important for Native Title research as well as museum studies."

Librarian Leonie Cash laments the closure of many of Melbourne's second-hand bookshops that makes these books even harder to obtain. Even now when books are becoming available in electronic form, physical books are still popular for researchers who spend much of their day looking at a computer screen and would prefer to read from paper.

The books are on display in the MV Library for staff to peruse and borrow. Of particular interest is the acquisition of the first edition of an American Philosophical Society publication of 1941 Aboriginal Australian String Figures, including string figure illustrations of the bandicoot, python, boomerang, and canoe.

Nick Alexander from CSIRO Publishing visited the MV Library last week in search of gliding mammals. He’s working on the production of an upcoming book by Stephen Jackson called Gliding Mammals of the World.

The book will cover certain groups of mammals - squirrels, possums and lemurs - that have evolved traits for soaring between trees, such as extra folds of skin along the sides of their bodies. Victorian gliding mammals include Squirrel Gliders, Sugar Gliders and Yellow-bellied Gliders.

In Gliding Mammals of the World, 19th century artworks from our rare books will accompany an introduction to the historical context of gliding mammal studies. Some of the early European natural history illustrations are, in Nick’s words, 'rather fanciful' but the new book will be beautifully illustrated by Peter Schouten who is renowned for his accurate and naturalistic wildlife illustrations.

You can look forward to the publication of Gliding Mammals of the World later this year.

This post comes from Leonie Cash, a librarian at the Museum Victoria library.

Thanks to the network of arts libraries, ARLIS, a trio of RMIT art academics visited the MV Library’s rare books collection recently to view examples of eighteenth and nineteenth century scientific illustration. Facsimiles of Albertus Seba and Maria Merian’s work were also on display.

Facsimiles of famous works by Albertus Seba and Maria Merian.
Source: Museum Victoria

The three visitors are associated with RMIT’s School of Art and all are practising artists with a keen interest in natural history, particularly natural history illustration.

Greg Moncrieff was very pleased with the diversity of material available from the old books on display.

While looking at Gould’s humming birds, Louise Weaver was fascinated by the methods of layering of paint that reproduce the beautiful colours of these small birds.

Peter Ellis, Associate Professor and Studio Coordinator of Painting at RMIT, has written that the “experience of travel has had a profound impression on my work” and his visit to Museum Victoria’s rare books, though a short distance, has left him wanting to return again soon.

This post comes from Leonie Cash, a librarian at the Museum Victoria library.

The MV Library received one of 150 invitations sent for a worldwide gathering of book collectors, librarians, archivists, and historians known as The Antarctic Circle. This group is united by their interest in the art and history of Antarctic studies.

The meeting in New Hampshire is organised by Robert Stephenson, a retired Harvard professor and founder of The Antarctic Circle. Unfortunately we can't attend the meeting, but Robert visited us recently to inspect MV's copy of Aurora Australis. This book is one of 90 copies printed under harsh conditions in Antarctica in 1907-08 during Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod expedition.

Founder of The Antarctic Circle, Robert Stephenson, and MV librarian, Leonie Cash, with MV's copy of Aurora Australis.Source: The Antarctic Circle

Robert has visited libraries and personal collectors around the world comparing copies of Aurora Australis and the individual features of each copy are painstakingly recorded on The Antarctic Circle website. Each Aurora Australis is unique; the book was bound with covers made from wooden packing-cases which contained the expedition's provisions. The MV copy is stencilled CHICKEN and is signed by Ernest Shackleton and George Marston. We also have the 1988 facsimile edition in the Rare Books Collection of the library.

Details of MV's copy of Aurora Australia. Left: signatures of Ernest Shackleton and George Marston. Right: the inside back cover reads 'CHICKEN' from the original packing crate.Image: Jon AugierSource: Museum Victoria

Matthew Stephens, reference librarian at the beautiful Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection at the Historic Houses Trust of NSW, recently spent time examining MV's archives and rare books. As part of his PhD research on the growth of book collecting from 1850 to the late 1880s. Matthew was keen to compare his findings from the Australian Museum with evidence of the early book collections at Museum Victoria. His research here confirmed the richness of the scientific book collections nurtured in Sydney and Melbourne at that time.